
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 18, 1995                   TAG: 9511200079
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BUDGETARY REFORMS ARE IMPERATIVE

FAMILIAR with the old left-wing charge that the United States was the first nation to use the atom bomb in anger? In anger are the operative words here. Well, the bombing was hardly ordered as a caprice. Harry Truman simply wanted to end the war.

There's a new one today. It goes like this: The Republicans want to balance the budget on the backs of the senior citizens in order to provide tax cuts for the very wealthy. Why in the world would any political party want to do that? Do they really hate the old and the poor? I forgot - they hate children too. Are they like the caricatures that Mike Luckovich portrays in his demagogic political cartoons? You know, the ones displayed on your Opinion page.

No, the Republicans know that yearly increases in entitlement spending have become unsustainable and would eventually bankrupt the nation. So action must be taken to bring them under control. President Clinton and the Democrats know that this is true, but they would rather engage in scare tactics for political gain than to admit that social programs they have championed for many years have failed or have become too costly to maintain at their present levels.

As for the proposed tax cuts, 75 percent would go to middle-class families with children. Hardly a tax cut for the ``very wealthy.'' Better yet, let tax cuts be delayed until government is on a glide path to a balanced budget.

There must be a lessening of such partisan rhetoric if problems facing the nation are to be understood and resolved. Change sometimes is difficult. In this case, it's imperative.

ROBERT H. PHILLIPS

MONETA

Regulation lacks common sense

IN A three-part series (Oct. 21, 22 and 23) titled ``The Allen Agenda,'' your staff writers did an excellent job of pointing out to the public that Virginia's regulatory review boards and department heads are now dominated by industry representatives. This has been a concern of mine since the Allen administration began making appointments. The dangerous, regulation-slashing frenzy is well under way, supposedly to make the regulatory framework more flexible and cost-effective. Unfortunately, the governor's stated goal is a ploy to fool the public into believing that what he's doing is a good thing.

Through the Virginia Municipal League, I learned of another example of this deception. It seems King and Queen County, due to concerns about groundwater pollution, had adopted an ordinance to require groundwater monitoring at a new major fertilizer facility. In a response to a question from the county attorney, Attorney General James Gilmore issued an opinion that could have far-reaching effects for localities protecting groundwater or drinking-water supplies. He said that the state code authorizes localities to adopt ordinances to prevent water pollution. However, an ordinance is inconsistent with state law and thereby prohibited if it imposes requirements that the State Water Control Board doesn't consider necessary for water-quality concerns.

Even before this administration started chopping regulations back to the federal minimum, we had the Kim-Stan and Avtex experiences to teach us that the state doesn't always provide adequate safeguards.

State and federal governments have previously agreed with the common-sense thinking that water-protection efforts are far more cost-effective than cleanup efforts or finding new water sources. To forbid a locality to take measures to protect its own water supply seems neither flexible nor cost-effective. I guess the old saying is true: ``You can fool some of the people some of the time.''

WAYNE R. WEIKEL

TROUTVILLE

Must Washington intervene?

I AM sick of your newspaper because when a black person does something wrong, you put it on the front page of the newspaper to make it look like it's very wrong and that we're bad guys. But when we do something good, you put it in the very back so that no one can see what real good people we are.

If you keep this up, I'll send a letter to Washington and tell them what you are doing. Do I make myself clear? Now do I have to do it, and you lose your job? Straighten up. Tomorrow I want better, or it happens.

BRODERICK JEFFREY

ROANOKE

by CNB